Jon Armstrong: Knocks, eSports & McRae – the rise of the World Rally Championship’s new underdog

After the ups and downs in his journey, Armstrong’s WRC dream will finally become a reality when he takes on the iconic Monte Carlo Rally.

His team-mate is Josh McErlean in an all-Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy backed team, and he will be co-driven by Shane Byrne.

Armstrong admits it will be a “baptism of fire” on the narrow and icy, yet high speed mountain roads, but “you’ve just got to keep on swimming”.

“It’s going into the unknown, but that’s what rallying is about,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to working with Josh. While there will be a competitive nature between us, we’ll be able to support and help each other.”

Armstrong says staying calm will be key as it would be “easy to get overwhelmed with the big lights of the WRC”.

When he thinks back to 18 years ago, when he doing rally sprints around Northern Ireland, what would he tell his younger self?

“Whenever you get started, you’re doing it because you love it and you want to try and do the best that you can.

“The ambition was always there to try to get to the WRC but, as the years went on, you understand that it’s quite difficult to get the opportunities for everything to come together. This has been a lot of years of hard work”.